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Port Moody was given its name in 1859 in honour of the commander of the Royal Engineers, Col Richard Clement Moody. However, the site remained undeveloped wilderness until 1879 when it was chosen by the Federal Government to be the Western Terminus of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR).

A celebration was held for the arrival of the First Scheduled Passenger Train on July 4, 1886. However, the celebration was short lived as rumours had been that the end of the line was going to move to Coal harbour. After numerous court cases, this came to pass on May 23rd, 1887. Port Moody went into a local state of depression and didn't revive for 30 years.

A New Era of Rail in Port Moody

After a request for a rail transit system to connect to New Westminster was denied in 1907, it wasn't until 1975 that requests were again made for transit connections to New Westminster and Vancouver. In 2009, a decision was finally made for a 'Skytrain' style system, which is expected to be completed in 2016. The speculation and development from this new rail transit has interesting comparisons to the coming of the CPR in the 1800s, and will influence Port Moody's development for the next century.